Nightpeople (31 page)

‘Look.' Dariand pointed daywards, into the gathering night, where a narrow thread of smoke climbed into the sky. It reminded Saria of the distant smoke she'd walked towards when she'd set out from the soak. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

‘What is it?'

‘Slander and his lot, I imagine. They're the only ones who'd be stupid enough to light a fire while they're tracking someone.'

‘How far away do you think they are?'

‘Hard to say.' Dariand squinted his eyes. ‘They've already come past the Shifting House, that's for sure. And they'll have given that place a wide berth.'

‘Why?'

‘Superstition. Come on.'

He grabbed their gear and started walking in a direction completely opposite to their nightwards course.

‘That's the wrong way.'

‘No.' He nodded at the smoke. ‘Think about it. How could they have caught us up so quickly?'

It took Saria only a couple of seconds to work it out.

‘Camels.'

‘Yeah.' Dariand nodded. ‘If we keep going nightwards, they'll be on us before the night is out. We've gotta double back.'

‘But …'

‘Listen. Trust me. Now, no talking, just move.'

And he set a pace so fast that Saria was almost running to keep up.

For hours they walked, and as they did, Dariand wound their course in an enormous arc which would eventually bring them back across their original path. The further daywards they travelled, the harder it became for Saria to ignore the urgency in the call. Rather than fading as they walked away from it, it seemed to grow more insistent, until it was taking all of Saria's mental and physical strength just to keep her feet moving. Finally, just before sunrise, Dariand called a halt.

‘Look there, we were right.'

Ahead of them, making a beeline nightwards, the ground was scuffed and marked with long shambling tracks.

‘Camels. That means Slander's gotten Gan on board, one way or another.'

‘So what do we do now?'

Dariand looked around, staring into the sunrise and clearly making up his mind about something.

‘I'd like to head straight back towards the valley…'

Saria shook her head.

‘No.'

‘Why not.'

‘I can't keep walking daywards. The call, it …' She tried to find words to explain. ‘It gets harder to walk away from it the further we go. I have to go nightwards.'

‘Have to?'

‘There's no other way for me.'

Dariand seemed to consider what she'd said, then finally he pointed at the camel tracks.

‘Okay. I don't understand it, but I'll trust you. For now we follow these.'

‘Follow them?'

‘They won't be looking for us behind them, and this way we can keep a close eye on Slander. We might even get an opportunity to …'

‘To what?' Saria prompted, but Dariand shook his head.

‘Don't worry. Let's just follow while it's still cool.'

They trudged along in the wake of Slander's group. As the morning grew brighter around them, Saria asked, ‘Where will we shelter when it gets too hot?'

‘I've got two sand shelters in my bag.' Dariand patted the long sack he wore across his back. ‘We'll use them if we have to.'

‘Sand shelters?'

‘You'll see. I'd like to get close to Slander first, though. See what he's up to.'

‘How far ahead are they?'

‘Don't know. It's hard to tell how long ago they passed through here. And with the camels they'll be moving a lot faster than we can.'

They marched in silence. The call shivered through Saria's bare feet, and almost without thinking she found herself reaching. There was a moment when she felt her mind slipping out into that enormous awareness, and Dreamer Baanti's pinprick pupils flashed across her thoughts, but the pull of the Earthmother was so much stronger, and she felt her body relax as she let her mind go.

It was like falling into a cool creek pool. The earthwarmth surged through and around her, and the world fell into place. The cold land of the Shifting House was well behind them, and ahead was the emptiness of warm earth and cool sky.

And Slander's group, stopped in a small hollow of sand and rock, not far ahead.

SARIA!

‘Saria?'

Slowly, reluctantly, she pulled herself back.

‘What happened? Are you okay?'

‘I'm fine.' She pushed aside Dariand's hand as he tried to take her arm. ‘Just wait a second.'

A few deep breaths and slowly the earthwarmth faded back to its usual constant throb.

‘What was that?'

‘I was reaching.'

‘Reaching? Into what?'

‘The Earthmother.'

Dariand threw her a sharp look.

‘I didn't know you could do that.'

‘Dreamer Wanji taught me. I'm stronger than most Dreamers at it.'

‘And you don't need another creature.'

‘No.'

She could tell Dariand was itching to ask more questions, so she pointed ahead.

‘They're not far. Just a little way on, there're a couple of low ridges and they're camped between two of them.'

‘You could see them?'

‘I could feel them.'

‘How many?'

She tried to recall. She'd been so lost in the power of what she was doing that she hadn't really noticed.

‘I'm not certain, perhaps five or six.'

A cold smile crept to the corners of Dariand's mouth.

‘And one of them'll be Gan. Another's probably Dreamer Gaardi. That leaves four at most.'

‘Dreamer Gaardi's helping Slander track us?'

‘He's probably not helping, but someone like Slander would need a Dreamer to track easily, and he'd be a fool to leave Dreamer Gaardi back in Woormra on his own. He was Dreamer Wanji's closest mate. No, he'll have Dreamer Gaardi with him, you can count on it.'

Without another word he set off nightwards, and Saria followed.

Reaching, it had seemed to her that Slander and his group were only a few minutes ahead. As they walked, though, the morning stretched on around them, the rising heat adding further discomfort.

‘You certain you felt them?' Dariand asked for the umpteenth time.

‘They're ahead,' Saria snapped back. ‘Just further than I thought.'

After a much longer walk than she'd anticipated, the first of the low ridges shimmered out of the horizon and, as they crept slowly up the gentle slope, a familiar groan echoed across the sand from somewhere off to their right.

‘The camels,' whispered Dariand. ‘Tethered. They won't be far away.'

At the top of the ridge he gestured her to keep her head down, but Saria ignored him and poked her head up alongside his, peering into Slander's campsite.

At the bottom of the slope, six figures slumped asleep beneath small, collapsible sun-shelters. All lay with their heads swathed by their robes, in deep shade, so it was impossible to discern one person from another.

One of the camels groaned again, and Dariand smiled as he rolled to face her

‘Do you reckon you can unhobble the camels?'

‘How?'

‘It's not hard. Find them and get their fetters off. Try and do them all, but even if you can only do one or two, it'll give us a start.'

‘What about you?'

‘I'm going to check that everything's clear around here, and then I'm going down to have a quiet word to a couple of people.'

Saria nodded and Dariand quickly vanished along the ridge in the other direction. He was still slow and tentative, favouring the right side of his body, but now she detected some traces of his old self in his movements.

She found the animals hobbled in a small, sandy hollow. There were eight of them, downwind from the camp so their smell wouldn't disturb the sleeping party. They stood here and there, a couple chewing absently, their faces implacable. As she approached, one swung its long neck in her direction and regarded her balefully with dark eyes. She thought it might have been one of the ones she'd ridden from Olympic with Gan, but it was impossible to tell.

Skirting around the edge of the group, she manoeuvred herself until she was close to the smallest one. Then she walked towards the beast, holding one hand out to take the halter that hung over the creature's neck and back.

The animals were hobbled by rope and leather bindings, which lashed their front and back legs together and allowed only a little give, certainly not enough for the camel to take a complete step. Nervously, aware of the enormous bulk of the animal towering over her, Saria knelt by its right foreleg, and reached for the hobble with hesitant fingers.

The camel gave a sharp grumble and Saria jumped back, startled, sprawling in the dirt while it cast an unpleasant glare at her before resuming its chewing. She stood again, took a deep breath, and tried once more.

The knot was small and tight, and Saria fiddled for some minutes before the binding came free and dropped into the dust. Immediately, the camel snorted and stamped its foot, a shuddering blow crashing into the dirt and causing Saria to jump away again.

Next she turned her attention to one of the rear hobbles, careful to stay well out to the side. This knot fell away more easily and Saria slipped around to the other side.

The third knot was locked firm and the more she struggled with it, the more agitated the camel became. With two legs already freed, it lurched forward, trying to escape. The remaining hobbles brought it up short, however, and it made its unhappiness clear, keeping up a constant low groaning.

She took a deep breath, and started to draw the earthwarmth into herself. She decided to reach into the camel's mind, to try and calm it with her own awareness.

Then someone grabbed her.

A thick hand pressed over her mouth, muffling her scream. The grip was firm and her captor began to squeeze, forcing air from her lungs until spots danced across her vision. Desperately, she raised her foot and brought it down as hard as she could and the man swore but didn't release her, just squeezed even harder.

A grey mist crept across her mind, and her arms and legs started to become heavy, making it harder and harder to kick and strike. When the black fog had almost completely engulfed her she went totally limp and he finally let her go.

Her legs buckled as she sucked in an enormous lungful. Before she could fall to the ground, the man grabbed her and spun her about to face him. Before she had time to recover her breath, Slander swung a fist back and buried it in her stomach.

What little air she'd managed to suck in left her again in a rush, and this time she doubled up on the ground.

‘Good of you to save us having to spend another day lookin' for you.'

A leather hobble like the ones used on the camels was slipped first around one of her ankles then the other Still gasping, Saria was unable even to struggle while Slander used more straps to bind her wrists tightly.

‘We've been killin' ourselves trying to catch you. That bloody Gaardi led us all over the country.' The man stopped tying the hobble long enough to throw a sly grin at her. ‘Still, he won't be doin' that again. Get up.'

He hoisted her to her feet.

‘Don't think of tryin' a nything between here and the camp, eh?' He gave her a shove towards the ridge. The hobbles caught her legs, and instead of making her walk his shove sent her tripping back to the ground.

‘Bugger.' Slander reached down again, but to Saria's surprise he didn't pull her back to her feet. Instead, he slipped his arms under her and lifted her easily, gathering her to his chest.

‘If I make you walk with those things on it'll take all bloody day, eh?'

The man's smell washed over her He stunk of sweat and camels. His breathing grew heavier as he laboured up the dune, and Saria could smell the rankness of it. She twisted her head, looking for Dariand. She had to try and warn him.

‘Stop wrigglin' or I'll drop you and leave you tied out in the sun all day, right?'

Obediently, she went limp in his arms and closed her eyes, trying to form some kind of a plan. Immediately, despite herself, she was aware of him, of his mind. Right there in front of her. She couldn't fail to feel it, but there was no control; she couldn't stop herself. Slander's consciousness glowed like a beacon, pulsing with earthwarmth and energy. Without thinking, without even trying to find the will to resist, Saria pressed into the outer levels of Slander's mind, pulling earthwarmth through him and into herself as she did so.

SARIA!
The call surged through the man, radiating power.

Stop! You have to stop,
some little part of her brain screamed, but it was swamped in the savage wave of energy that connected her mind to Slander's. There was so much there, so much anger, pain, fear, strength. Saria drove herself deeper, down through the layers of Slander's mind, seeking out that burning, that distant, buried spark that she'd felt in every creature she'd ever reached. She sought it out so she could suck it away, destroy it with her own burning, so she could unleash the growing pressure of earthwarmth inside her.